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Asteroidal Pirate Caves - 3D experiment...

I was intrigued with RobA's sci-fi Pirate Cave entry for the December challenge - I mentioned the idea of working in 3D to create pirate cave on an asteroid, was something that crossed my mind.

Of course, 4 hours is impossible for most 3D projects, so I'm trying this outside the challenge.

Now this "map" is really a 3D 3/4 view of the pirate station and cave system. More like a 3D model than a map, but I'll pursue this just the same. Actually creating the asteroid, caves and cutaway view is actually easier than creating the structure and furnished chambers - so I thought I'd start on the hard stuff first, to get it out of the away for the rest of the project.

All I created here are "crew quarters" area of the pirate station. I plan to create a galley/dining area/recreation room, an operations center, armory, stolen goods treasury chamber, powerplant, life support, infirmary and pirate ship bays/maintenance area.

Finally I'll create the asteroid itself, with internal caves and then I'll place the structure within this and cut-away to expose what I plan to show.

Again this is totally experimental and I may eventually steer away from 3/4 views and stick aerial view maps, I just wanted to try this...

WIP so far...

Ravs mentioned in a past post, that mappers always seem to forget the toilet facilities on starships, with this in mind, I created a "mobile home shower unit" where the toilet is actually inside the shower. I created "fold away toilet seat" notice down position on left side crew quarters, vs. the "ready to use toilet seat folded out" in the right side crew quarters...

Attached Thumbnails

Last edited by Gamerprinter; 12-29-2007 at 02:56 PM.
Reason: forgot to mention the lavatory!

Twice the work, but oh well...

I think the best way to take advantage of the 3/4 view 3D model/map is when I'm completed, to create a standard aerial view map of the same complex, one that is useable in a standard battlemap format with a grid (and without for VTT usage.)

This way the 3/4 view becomes more of a player's illustration than the only map available.

Now that you mention it... Wouldn't this area probably look more like the berths in an aircraft carrier than steerage on a cruise liner? Bunks, I mean. Not private rooms. Probably too much work to un/redo, but while the topic was under discussion...

I thought of that...

I thought of that, but I thought that long periods in space away from civilization on a station might get you serious cabin fever overtime. By having individual rooms pirates on station can have some level of privacy and have better spirits because of that. For the privacy reason, I placed shower/toilets in each room as well, instead of a common commode/shower room - as is in military situations.

I see my pirates as less a military unit, rather rogues hired on over time, so some level of civilian necessities outweigh pure military efficiency.

I haven't fully decided. Regarding the trouble to create bunks instead of state rooms, that's easy enough. If I started right now I could model a 3D bunk bed in about 10 minutes, replacing the single bed and re-rendering would add another 5 minutes and replacement complete.

I would think space pirates would be very similar to old world pirates. So the privacy / time away from civilization would be pretty much the same, and therefore the bunks and common areas would be similar. In fact, the lack of "niceties" would be a good impetus to getting them out and working... er... pillaging and plundering.

Bill Stickers is innocent! It isn't Bill's fault that he was hanging out in the wrong place.Please make an effort to tag all threads. This will greatly enhance the usability of the forums.

If space is a concern...

If space or the lack of it is a concern, how about influence from a Japanese Capsule Hotel! Here's a smaller "state room" version. Perhaps these individual chambers are officers quarters. You can see the toilet (this one is a sliding drawer commode) just beyond the bed on left side of the chamber. Also a "television/monitor" can be seen on the left center wall.

I'll create a common bunk room / common commode area for the general crew. In fact, I'll make the common bunk room the chamber outside the officer quarters in the image below. So its really one barracks room with officer capsules attached on one wall.

Note the "pin-up girl" on the wall - its really a topless girl with a cubs jersey painted on... (give you a little thrill...)